Chol sentenced to 17 years with no parole for 2021 murder

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Yohanna David Chol will serve at least 17 years in prison for the execution-style killing of 36-year-old Vuyo Kashe on July 15, 2022.

Chol, 38, was found guilty of second-degree murder in September by jurors who spent one day deliberating before returning with a guilty verdict. He was handed a life sentence with no chance of parole for 17 years on Feb. 27.

No motive was ever revealed for the murder at Chol’s trial, and Chol did not testify in his own defence.

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“There was very likely some explanation, but we just don’t know what precipitated this murder,” Assistant Crown attorney D’Arcy Wilson said.

According to the prosecution’s timeline of the killing, Chol was hanging out with Kashe and another man on the steps of a church at the corner of King Edward Avenue and Clarence Street on the night of the murder.

Chol briefly left and was seen pacing on Clarence Street, then crossing King Edward to Murray Street before he returned to the church steps 20 minutes later. Chol was seen on surveillance video beckoning to Kashe, and the man is seen casually following him across the street.

Kashe was shot in a “blind spot” on Clarence Street, away from camera view, Wilson said, though the video captured the sound of a gunshot followed in rapid succession by six more.

“Mr. Chol chose to arm himself with a nine-millimetre handgun and lured Mr. Kashe down a dark, lonely street,” Wilson said. “He chose to aim and fire. He listened to Mr. Kashe cry out, then he fired six more times, execution-style, in the back.”

Chol had a lengthy criminal history at the time of the murder and had been deemed a danger to the public who was scheduled to be deported to South Sudan in December 2021.

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According to his federal court records, Chol was born in Sudan in 1986 and came to Canada in 2003 as a refugee.

His time in Canada was marked by violence and criminal convictions for an array of offences, including assault, drug trafficking and obstructing a peace officer.

Chol also suffered from poor mental health and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, anxiety and depression.

He was stripped of his status as a permanent resident and his numerous criminal convictions rendered him inadmissible to Canada. The Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration deemed Chol a danger to the Canadian public and he was ordered to be deported on Dec. 13, 2021.

Two days before his scheduled removal, that decision was overturned by a Federal Court judge who ruled that doing so would have put Chol at risk of death or inhumane treatment.

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